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Stephanie Crets
Media Effects
Reading Reaction #5
Graber, ed #21, 31, 34
In the 21st essay by Kedrowski, she spoke of media entrepreneurs and how the Congress grabs the media’s attention. Her survey found that most of these entrepreneurs are young, white, liberal Democrats, who go after the media in order to frame certain policies for their own agenda. Media entrepreneurs seek out any source of media because the more influential they appear to be, the more chance they will have to affect policy change.
The 31st essay by Aufderheide discusses the impact of communication networks with the advancing technology upon the general public. It also explained the regulations and history of various acts that have passed in order to keep an eye on the ever-expanding communications networks from the Internet to television to cell phones. She urges people to become more involved in the policy-making so they can have more impact on these technologies, which directly influence their lives.
In the 34th essay by Linsky, he highlights an instance during the Nixon presidency, where policymakers attempted to influence the public through vast media coverage in order to get a bill passed that raised the pay of postal workers of the CCPR. These policymakers appeared on national broadcasts, put ads in newspapers, and encouraged people to write to the president. Those opposed, however, called it “brainwashing.” As a result, the postal workers went on strike and eventually reached a compromise that resulted in raising their pay. The press’ impact was the driving force in this situation because without it, the public would not have known of the workers’ strife and support would have been minimal.
It’s amazing how a few appearances on a nation news program or an article in the New York Times can influence the public. And with the advent and growing of even more technology, government officials, or policymakers as they were continuously referred to in the essays, can access the media even quicker these days. They have even more resources to get their message to the public through blogs, twitter, and even facebook. On facebook, you can join groups to support certain political candidates and I still get updates from President Obama’s group, which tells me about current situations going on in the White House or abroad. I think this is an advantage to the government because most people don’t want to search endlessly for their political news or news about specific issues that may seem small, but for which the government really needs support. Most people like news delivered to them either easily on the television news (although it’s hard to get a good fount of information when the policymakers have maybe thirty seconds of airtime) or straight to their e-mail. The Internet is really making newsgathering more and more convenient. And without getting their message to the citizens, the policymakers would lack support and many bills would never be passed. So, I don’t blame them for using the current medias to their advantage, but they shouldn’t overuse it to the point of exhaustion. Some news stories that are continuously told grow tiresome and no one wants to support anything they have to hear about day in and day out. I know the economy’s status is important, but I’m pretty tired of hearing about it, despite the fact that it concerns me. Unless something extremely important happens, for example, the stimulus package finally being approved, then I wouldn’t mind hearing about it. But, lately, the stories are basically, “the economy is still bad and we’re trying to fix it.” It’s not necessary everyday.